Vacation

We visited Marco Island again this year for our Dec. vacation. The condos there are very nice with a full sized kitchen and down feather beds. They also have complimentary laundry service so that helped out a lot with the children's clothing. We had them wash all of our clothes before we came home so we came home all we had to do it put away the clothes. It helped out a bunch! We had a two bedroom this year because Mom came with us. She watched the kids one night so Jim and I could go out to dinner. We went to a French restaurant that was delicious.

Here is James and Jim together. James loved the pool. As soon as he was in the water he kept kicking and splashing...non stop!! It made it hard to hold him because he was ALWAYS kicking and then splashing you in the face. It was worth it though...SO CUTE!!

Sophia and Jim made a sand castle together. They also made a sand snowman (Sophia loves snowmen this year) but the snowman didn't turn out so well. I thought the sand castle looked pretty good though!

We will definitely go back again next year, except Dad and/or Mary is going to have to come along to (Mom's request). It is such a relaxing and beautiful place to go to. Down the street is a shopping complex with restaurants, an ice cream parlor, and a movie theatre that serves meals. Since it is a small island, there are not that many streets so it is easy to navigate and the people at the hotel are so accommodating and friendly. We had a nice relaxing time. And I think everyone except Mom and maybe Jim got plenty of rest - Thanks Mom!!

POTTY TRAINED!!!

Well, I think it is official. Sophia is potty trained!! She has gone over 10 days without having one accident and with telling us that she needs to go potty. I rarely have to remind her now to go. It is awesome! I took her shopping to pick out her very own underwear and to my surprise she chose Princess underwear. Now we are in a big Princess stage. She wants everything Princess. Today she chose Princess Ariel (The Little Mermaid), and she danced around the house singing "Princess Ariel". So cute! I still put her in a diaper to go to bed and she got very upset today about that.

James 6 Months Pictures

James gives this look a lot, especially when he is meeting someone new or you want to hold him but he is trying to tell you he is fine where he is at.

Sitting up like a champ!

I love this photo. See his two teeth!

This is a new trick he learned to do with his lips. Adorable!!

In other updates, I don't remember if I mentioned this or not but Sophia's EEG results came back normal!! Yeah! She doesn't need to be put on any medications or anything. We thought that was great news. The children right now are napping so I am trying to catch up on things but as usual, I can't think of anything else that the kids are doing. Oh, Sophia is potty trained during the day. She will run to the potty when she has to go. The funny thing though is that she can't pull down her own pants yet. So yesterday, Jim took care of the kids while I went to dinner with Christina (Thank you!!) and when I came home, Jim told me that Sophia pee-peed on the potty. Except, Jim was busy with James so Sophia went to go do it by herself. When she was done, she showed Jim all of the pee in the potty. Jim looked in there and wondered how she did it all by herself. Until he realized that her pantyhose were soaking we in the middle!! Funny - remind you of anything Carol?!

James 6 Months Check-Up

I know I haven't blogged in a long time but it has been really busy. I promise soon I will post new pictures and catch everyone up. In the mean time, James had his 6 month check-up yesterday. He is 29 inches long (which means he is growing out of his infant car seat and I have to buy a new one), 18 pounds 12 ounces, and I can't remember the head circumference except that it was in the 70%ile. His height is in the 100%ile and his weight is in the 70%ile. If you saw him before his bath, you could tell he is going to be just like Jim, long and skinny. Anyway, he is doing awesome and is sitting up on his own. What a big boy!

Breakfast in Bed

This morning I was pleasantly surprised by breakfast in bed. Jim had gotten up with the children, turned off the monitors so I couldn't hear them, and he let me sleep in until 7:45!! When I woke up, I had a tray of scrambled eggs, vegetarian bacon, two homemade pancakes (one with peanut butter, one without), and a glass of chocolate milk. Yum Yum!! What a sweet and wonderful husband!

Sophia update: it could be a couple of weeks until we get the test results back from her 48 hour EEG. I will post pictures as soon as I take the time to download the pictures.

James update: He is sitting on his own and has two teeth. Big Boy!

This and That

It has been a long time since I have blogged but we have been VERY busy. I will give you the short of everything and fill you in later when I have more time. First of all we put our house up on the market. We are hopefully moving to a bigger house with more bedrooms. I will definitely miss our backyard! We have been busy with showing the house (which involves a lot of cleaning and running the kids out of the house for an hour at a time). We have had 8 showings but no takers yet.

I was gone last week on my girl trip. It was relaxing but the weather was terrible. I was gone a week and we only had one day of sun. The rest of the week was strong winds, rain, and thunderstorms ... constantly! The lesson learned was to never go to the Caribbean in October.

Second of all, Sophia goes into the hospital tomorrow for her 48 hour EEG. She had another seizure today while I was at the doctor. I guess it was a bad one. Apparently this time she grew pale and then was very tired afterward. This is the first time she has gotten tired after having one so I am worried that her petit mals might be turning into grand mals but I am sure I am just being a worried mother. Let's pray the results are nothing serious!

I have a million pictures to post and will as soon as Sophia and I are back from the hospital.

New Tooth

Big News - James got his first tooth!! Very exciting. It is his lower left incisor. I didn't even know he had any ready to pop through because he hasn't been fussy or anything. He was chewing on my hand while I was clipping his fingernails and I felt it. The second exciting news was today was his first day to have cereal. He did well for his first time. Hopefully tomorrow will go just as well and then maybe he will start sleeping all the way through the night.

Sophia news is that today she spelled MOM. Well, okay not exactly spelled but I wrote the word on the side of the bathtub and she pointed to the letters and said "M...O...M...Mama!". I know Jim worked with her on her M's today but I don't know where she learned the O from. She is a little sponge for new information. Smart little cookie!

Neuro Visit

We got our neurology appointment moved up to today. Sophia did awesome. We met with the doctor and she educated us on a lot of information regarding seizures. Then Sophia had her EEG. She sat very still while they put the electrodes on and then she sat on my lap while they did the test. The test took 30 minutes. We read books and she did very well. She only cried at the end when they had to take the electrodes off because the electrodes were pasted to her hair on her head. We got the results back already - normal - YEAH!! However, the doctor expected that. Now we have to go into the hospital for a 2 day video EEG. Ugh. We will get a call tomorrow when that is but the neurologist is trying to schedule it for next week. I am going to stay with Sophia during that time. Jim has to work two days next week so if it is scheduled during that time we might need to call in some reinforcements to help with James. Anyway, I'll keep everyone updated on that report. Hopefully the video EEG will be normal as well.

7 Things

I got this from Paula. So here are 7 random, weird things about me that you may or may not know.

1) I love blueberries. I could eat my weight in them - and since having two kids so close together - that is a lot of weight :-). Every summer I buy 4 pounds at a time and I buy them every week. YUM!

2) I cannot stand to hear people eating. Therefore we eat our meals with either the news or music on. When I hear people eat or when I see them eat with their mouths open, I want to throw up. I have been known to stop eating because I could hear my own self eat and it made me lose my appetite.

3) I love cars. I love how they look, how they drive, all of the features, the colors...everything. If I had millions and millions of dollars I would probably own 10 or more cars.

4) The last thing I do every night before I go to bed is go to the bathroom. It doesn't matter if I just went 5 minutes ago. If Jim starts talking with me or if I go check on one of the kids, I will have to go to the bathroom again before I can fall asleep.

5) I always have the house alarm on - unless Jim is home. Even in the middle of the day, I will turn alarm on. I don't know why, I'm not scared in my own home. It is just something that I do.

6) I secretly watch The Girls Next Door when I am bored. I don't know what it is about the show but I think it is funny. Maybe it is because it is a lifestyle that is soooo different from my own that is interesting. Also, I don't quite understand what it is about Hef that attracts all of these girls.

7) I have an anxiety attack every time I fly. It doesn't stop me from flying but every time the plane takes off and lands, I pray and take deep breaths while my heart pounds and I get very very still with nervousness.

There you go - 7 strange little facts about ME! I don't know 7 people who have blogs (and I don't know how to attach the blog to this posting and I don't really have time right now to figure it out - I'm a busy Mom today) but I will tag people that I know who have blogs as well as some people to respond via email. I tag Beck, Carol, Mom, Paula A., Jim, Suz, Christina.

Sophia

It looks like Sophia is having seizures again. For those of you who don't know, Sophia started having seizures at around 4 weeks old but the EEG was normal and the pediatric neurologist thought she would out grow it. Well, she did, up until about 3-4 weeks ago. We have an appointment Oct. 21 with the neurologist. I am sure she will order tests. Jim saw two of the seizures this week and he is going to call on Monday to see if we can get the tests done sooner so when we come to the appointment, we will already have test results in hand. Let's hope she will just 'grow out of them' and that it is nothing serious. Keep her in your prayers, please.